[OMS_MANAGERS] Wine walks/after dark events

[Sarah Lu Heath]

Astoria here 😊

We’ve produced the 2nd Saturday Art Walk for about a decade, give or take. It does drive foot traffic, boosts restaurant sales, and is typically the biggest sales day of the month for galleries.

Our role:
Gather exhibit descriptions from participating galleries
Produce monthly walking map
Paid advertising for the event throughout the district

Galleries Role:
Schedule exhibit, provide description to ADHDA
Pay $10 to cover cost of advertising
Provide snacks and wine to participants (this is what drives attendance)
Provide live music (not required but drives longer stays in venues)

During the pandemic we:
Removed the requirement AND disallowed food/drink
Extended hours from 5-8p to noon-8p to avoid crowding
We only missed one month of Art Walk during the pandemic
Attendance is just starting to tick up again, and is weather dependent (not the case before bc there was free snacks)

Last note – Consistency is key.



Two cents,
Good luck,
SL

Sarah Lu Heath
Executive Director
Astoria Downtown Historic District Association
No.1-12th Street, Suite 114
PO Box 261
Astoria, OR 97103
503.791.7940
www.AstoriaDowntown.com<http://www.astoriadowntown.com/>

From: OMS_MANAGERS <oms_managers-bounces at omls.oregon.gov> On Behalf Of Brenda Hoxsey
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2021 5:37 PM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at omls.oregon.gov>
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] Wine walks/after dark events

Astoria has had huge turnouts.  Businesses stay open, serve treats and wine or beer, either in their stores or on the sidewalk.  It's like an open house for all of down town.  You should contact Astoria Main Street.  They're successful and fun.

Brenda Hoxsey
Spruce Up Warrenton

On Wed, Mar 24, 2021, 3:57 PM Business Outreach & Community Coordinator <coordinator.goldbeachmainstreet at gmail.com<mailto:coordinator.goldbeachmainstreet at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hello everyone,

For those of you who typically hold wine walk/main street after dark type events, how have you navigated them during COVID? I know quite a few of them were cancelled, but wanted to see if anyone had found a way to do a pandemic-version of their typical event?

We are interested in planning something for later in the year, but obviously with things still as they are I wanted to see if there was any way to safely plan one. I haven't been to an event like this in the past either, so even if we aren't able to host one for a long time, I would love to see your event schedules or just get an idea for how they typically work!

Thank you in advance,

Lyndsey Dixon
Business Outreach & Community Coordinator | Gold Beach Main Street
541 247 7029 ext. 106 | goldbeachmainstreet.org<http://goldbeachmainstreet.org>
PO Box 1203, Gold Beach, OR 97444
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